She posed. She stepped back from the mirror and half-unconsciously fell to imitating the manners of the revered aristocracy she had respectfully studied from a distance. In a few minutes she was joined by Millie, also arrayed in peacock's feathers and anxious to be "fastened." Their excitement increased. Walking dresses gave place to evening gowns. They lost their sense of fear and ran into other departments searching for long white gloves to hide the disfigurements of household work. They paraded and bowed to each other. The climax came when they discovered a Court dress, immensely trained, and embroidered with gold thread, laid by with evidences of tenderest care in endless wrappings of tissue paper. Surely the dress of some elegant young duchess! For a moment they wrangled, but Blanche triumphed. "You shall have it afterwards," she said, as she ran to her dressing-room. Millie followed in an elaborate gown of Indian silk; a somewhat sulky Millie, inclined to resent her duty of lady's maid. She dragged disrespectfully at the innumerable fastenings. "My!" ejaculated Blanche when she could indulge herself in the glory of full examination before a cheval glass in the open show-room. She struggled with her train and when she had arranged it to her satisfaction, threw back her shoulders and lifted her chin haughtily. "I ought to have some diamonds," she reflected. "It drags round the hips," was Millie's criticism. "You should say 'Your Majesty,'" corrected Blanche. "Oh! a Queen, are you?" asked Millie. "Rather----" "Queen of all the Earth," sneered Millie. Blanche's face suddenly fell. "I wonder if she began like this," she said, and a note of fear had come into her voice. Millie's eyes reflected her sister's alarm. "Oh! let's get out of this, B.," she said, and began to tear at the neck of her Indian silk gown. "I wanted diamonds, too," persisted Blanche. "Oh! B., it isn't right," said Millie. "I said it wasn't right and you would come." Silence descended upon them for a moment, and then both sisters suddenly screamed and ducked, putting up their hands to their heads. "Goodness! What was that?" cried Blanche. A swallow had swept in through the open window, had curved round in one swift movement, and shot out again into the sunlight. "Only a bird of some sort," said Millie, but she was trembling and on the verge of hysterics. "Do let's get out, B." After they had put on their own clothes once more they became aware that they were hungry. "We have wasted a lot of time here," said Blanche as they made their way out. She did not pause to wonder how many women had spent the best part of their lives in a precisely similar manner. "And we ought to have been looking for food," she added. "Come on," replied Millie. "That place has given me the creeps." 4